Re: Yes, we’re an oil company - its remarkable when ads become relevant to our times

Khurram Mir — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 16:46:32 -0000

First thing first: 101 of advertisement is... an ad agency is only responsible for making an advertisement. The whole thought of what needs to be shown and why , comes from brand managers. If at all ad agencies get to make the idea , the final go only comes from BM's, even in that case every input is from the very guy whose life would be under threat if brand message goes all wrong.Everything from color schemes to the theme is basically the thought of brand and company - it has got nothing to do with what ad agency wants to show - or say , dont want to show. So your rant against advertisers is pretty much off.

Secondly, every product and brand caters to social responsibility which somehow connects to its own business. You wont see Chevron making an ad on food crisis or any such issue. This brings me to share the definition of CSR, the following is definition of CSR by International Finance Corporation :

Corporate social responsibility is the commitment of businesses to contribute to sustainable economic development by working with employees, their families, the local community and society at large to improve their lives in ways that are good for business and for development.

On Wiki its like this:

Corporate social responsibility (CSR, also called corporate responsibility, corporate citizenship, and responsible business) is a concept whereby organizations consider the interests of society by taking responsibility for the impact of their activities on customers, suppliers, employees, shareholders, communities and other stakeholders, as well as the environment.

So , the idea is that if you believe Chevron has done something 'out fo their way' , i think they have only done which is according to their business best interest. May be coke and other food related should be talking about food crisis in the world - but Mobilink? errrr..i am not so sure why they should be a part of rant.This brings me to my original post, if the issue is just to be a part of 'how we are all in an absolute mess' , then yeah may be Jazz people should make a sad jingle. But just because these companies made some ads which werent related to 'how chevron's ads are related' , i dont think there is a case for them not being aware or being upto the marks for social responsibility. May be they are investing alot in some other charities? Remember coke's ad when we were out of cricket's worldcup, would you call it socially responsible or not? Or will you call special Ramadan ads/packages socially responsible? If you try to dig deep you will realize, the best thing about Capitalist system has been its ability to react to changing times. Be it through introducing new products, changing strategies, finding new markets, adjusting feedbacks or being responsible for their acts and hence fixing the issues. - Looks like i have side tracked , but thats what happens when posts are put up with not much analysis.

Just a request: When you are a writer , or a blogger/preacher/etc, there is always a responsibility to propogate the knowledge which is thoroughly verified before being shared with others. We have many Geo Tv's already. I hope this forum doesnt turn out to be another platter of 'spicy gossip' & 'conspiracy theories' - would be an utter disappointment. After all, its not all about coporate responsibility. Its also about individual responsibility - as much.

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Re: Yes, we’re an oil company - its remarkable when ads become relevant to our times